00:00I just spent the last 30 days with a traveling digital nomad community and in this video I am
00:05going to share my experience with you, all the pros, all the cons and if this would be maybe
00:10also something for you. But what exactly is a digital nomad travel program? As you all know,
00:16digital nomads can work from anywhere in the world and there are millions of people doing
00:20that already. But most of them have one problem in common. They are traveling alone. So they go
00:26to a new place, meet new people, make friends and then after a month, after a few months they move
00:32on and they have to start all over again. Which is fun for a while but after a certain amount
00:39of time
00:39all of them are starting to feel lonely. Because all the people you meet are only temporary friendships
00:46and then they are starting to long for longer lasting relationships or for a community. And
00:55this is to travel with a community. You are going from country to country with the same group of
01:01people. How this usually works is that the community stays in one country for a month then they move
01:07all together to the next country for a month and then to the next country. So I joined the Wi
01:12-Fi artists
01:13in Cape Town for one month and now they are in Phuket and then they will go to Bali, then
01:19Japan and so on.
01:20But I only joined for one month just to get a feel for it. But most of the other participants
01:25are joining for longer, up to 12 months and are still traveling with them. I for myself wouldn't
01:30consider myself a digital nomad, maybe a part-time digital nomad. My first long trip was a year,
01:36the second one was nine months, the third one was six months and the last one was four months. So
01:42each trip is getting shorter. I don't enjoy being on the road for too long because after a certain
01:50amount of time I just get tired of traveling and I like to have homebates, you know. But let's dive
01:55into it. How does it all work? What can you expect from something like this? Well, after applying to
02:01the program and being accepted, the only thing I had to do was to book my flights to Cape Town.
02:06When I
02:06got there, I got picked up from the airport, I got a SIM card in my hand and the group
02:10leader greeted
02:11me with a sign in front of the co-living space. We were staying in a community building that was
02:16designed
02:16as a co-living and co-working space. They actually had more than one co-working space in the city,
02:21so
02:22we could also work in the different spaces across town, which was pretty cool. So you have like a
02:27change of scenery. So yeah, we had a big welcome dinner to get to know each other because some of
02:33the people were already traveling for a while together and there were some new people like
02:38myself. And then basically tried to organize the first week what people want to do. Then we voted on
02:45who wants to go where and the group lead did basically organize everything. We didn't have to organize anything.
02:52There was a group lead. She took care of everything. But because this is not a vacation, it's a
02:57vocation. Not all the people have always time. So we were in the program 12 people and on average
03:04seven or eight people would go somewhere.
03:07It was pretty rare for all the group to travel together to a place and see something. And because
03:13everybody has like work to do during the week, people wouldn't do much during the week. Maybe in the evening
03:19or in the early morning, we go to a museum or in a bar. But most things we did together
03:24were actually on the weekend.
03:25So one weekend we went to Kruger Park to do a safari. That was the most awesome thing ever.
03:32Another weekend we did like a full day tour to Baldur's Beach, the Cape of Good Hope, you know, see
03:38a lot of stuff on the road.
03:39You probably want to know who the other people were participating out of the 12 people who were in the
03:45program.
03:46I would call four of them digital nomads and eight of them remote workers. For me, a digital nomad is
03:53someone who is
03:54independent, not only in where they can work, but also when they can work as if they would work for
04:01themselves.
04:01You know, being a freelancer, having a startup, something like that.
04:06And a remote worker is for me someone who still works for a company somewhere else who has to stick
04:12to office hours most of the time.
04:14So yeah, eight of the people were remote workers. They had to stick to office schedules, mostly the U.S.,
04:21which meant that they had to work from 3pm deep into the night.
04:27But this meant that everybody had very different schedules and availability of free time.
04:33Me having the most time because I can work while I do something.
04:37I'm going on a trip, I'm going to the safari and I film there.
04:40Let's move on to what's the good thing about all this?
04:44I would say the best thing, obviously, is having so many people to do stuff with.
04:49Even if most people won't have time to go to the beach, to go see something, there will be always
04:55someone.
04:56So you can explore the city not alone, but with someone else.
05:00Being for 30 days with this group of people, I was able to make much deeper connections with the people
05:06than I usually would be able to.
05:08Because if you travel alone, you usually see people for a few days, that's it.
05:12Of course, another great thing being in a program like that is that you don't have to organize anything.
05:18You save a lot of time researching places, looking for tour operators, looking for flights.
05:25There's the group lead who organizes basically everything.
05:28You just have to say, okay, I want to join on this trip or this trip and then you give
05:33them like 50 bucks and then it's done.
05:36You save a lot of time also with the accommodation, finding the co-working space.
05:41This usually takes a lot of time in organizing, so joining a digital nomad program, yeah, it saves you a
05:48lot of time.
05:49Of course, you have to pay for it, but you have to consider how much is your time worth and
05:54how much are you willing to pay, you know.
05:56But what's the bad thing?
05:57Well, it is great to be in a big group like this.
06:01The bad thing about being a big group is that if you want to go to a restaurant with 10
06:07people,
06:07you're going to have a hard time finding free space and also because some people were remote workers basically and
06:15some people were digital nomads.
06:16We had very different schedules and free time when we could do things together and because of that during the
06:24weekdays,
06:24the remote workers would stick together and would like hang out together, work together and the digital nomads would do
06:31their thing during the week.
06:32But yeah, I mean, it would be great if everybody would have a similar schedule, I guess.
06:38Let's talk a little bit about who this program really is for.
06:42I would say a program like this is for people who want to travel and see the world and at
06:47the same time don't want to organize or don't have the time to organize things like the accommodation, the tours,
06:55what to do, all the research.
06:57It takes a lot of time organizing the things. Yeah, if you have ever traveled anywhere, you will know and
07:03it is also for people who have a hard time being alone.
07:08You know, there's a lot of types of people who don't like to spend time on their own, who always
07:14need to have people around them.
07:16Or maybe you haven't traveled so much in your life and you just want to go out in the world,
07:21but you are not comfortable doing it alone or you don't have friends who are able to travel, but you
07:27are and you can join a program like this.
07:30You have immediately a lot of friends to do stuff with and then this is a great thing to do
07:35for you.
07:36But it's also something for experienced travelers when you are going to a dangerous country like South Africa or Latin
07:44America.
07:45I certainly felt much more safe than I would have been alone in a country like this, you know, having
07:52my camera on display and I most likely wouldn't have filmed as much as I did in South Africa if
07:58I wouldn't have been in a group like this.
08:00So yeah, even if you are an experienced traveler, I have visited more than 60 countries, I would totally recommend
08:07to join a program like this if you are going to a not so safe country, just to have the
08:14safety of the group, you know.
08:15All in all, I believe the digital nomad travel programs have a bright future.
08:21Remote work is getting bigger and bigger every year.
08:24Thanks to Corona, this has been only accelerating and more and more people are able and willing to work somewhere
08:31else.
08:32And yeah, while being there, you probably even save money because most countries are much cheaper than Europe or the
08:38USA.
08:39So you actually save money being there even if you pay for a program like this.
08:44But you know what would be really awesome if there was a program tailored to specific working groups, you know,
08:51there could be a digital nomad travel program for musicians, for video makers, for programmers.
08:58So you throw this kind of people together and then they can share their knowledge, maybe collaborate, you know, foster
09:05these kind of things.
09:06That would be really cool.
09:07And maybe that's even the future, the next step of evolution of this kind of programs because it is a
09:14very new thing after all.
09:16So yeah, if anyone wants to do this, give me a call.
09:21I'll join.
09:22Maybe we do business together.
09:23No, I'm kidding.
09:24I'm too lazy for that.
09:25Don't call me.
09:25I think we covered most of the things.
09:27If you have any questions, just drop a comment below.
09:31I will try my best to answer all of them.
09:33I hope this video was helpful for you and gave you some insight into the life of a digital nomad.
09:40See you in the next video.
09:42Until then, stay radical.
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